Meet Akina Mama wa Afrika’s Board of Directors!
Akina Mama wa Afrika is pleased to announce the addition of new members to her Pan African Board of Directors. We are thrilled at the passion and expertise they bring in leading AMwA on her mission to strengthen the individual and collective leadership of African women, forming strategic partnerships, to tackle patriarchy and attain gender equality […]
The AWLI Gave Me The Freedom and Courage to Pursue a Career That I Was Passionate About
Ashanut Okille is a lawyer and development practitioner with over fifteen years’ experience of supporting interventions that promote human rights, governance, gender equality, and institutional/organizational strengthening in Africa. Ashanut holds an LL.M, and is trained in Organization Development (OD), which gives her the unique ability to have both a sound understanding of the content of […]
The Africa CSO Consultation on the Common African Position (CAP) on Population and Development Meeting in Namibia
In July 2012, the African Union Summit mandated the African Union Commission to identify Africa’s priorities for the post-2015 Development Agenda in close consultation with Member Stated and Regional Economic Communities. Later in May 2013, the African Union Summit further established a High-Level Committee of Heads of State and Government to sensitize and coordinate the […]
Ending the Culture of Silence on Sexual Harassment at Institutions of Higher Learning in Uganda
Have you ever desisted from raising your hand to suggest an answer in a classroom because the lecturer is a well-known predator and you do not want to call attention to yourself? Have you ever been asked to meet your lecturer at 7pm or 11pm? Have you ever missed class the entire semester because you […]
A new frontier on tax justice from a feminist perspective in Uganda
Thursday 22nd August 2019 had a whiff of history about it as 27 women gathered to demand a seat at the table of tax discourse. On that day, two births of note happened; first AMwA began in earnest, the project on plugging illicit financial flows for women’s economic empowerment and secondly, a movement of women-led […]
I am a Feminist. Fullstop.
The theme of this year’s Uganda Feminist Forum (UFF) was “Silencing Our Fears and Fearing Our Silence”. One I hadn’t easily understood until I started interacting with it through the preparations for the forum and the buildup tweet chats. There is something about being in womxn only spaces that is so calming. The room was diverse, […]
Clipping Thorny Rose Bushes: Stories of Women Working on Flower Farms in Uganda
In 2014, flowers contributed 38.7 million US dollars to Uganda’s GDP. Although women contribute 60% to 75% of the labor force in the horticulture industry, their labour is mainly concentrated in the lower stages of the value chain. Women work as labourers – digging, weeding, harvesting, sorting, packing and labeling flowers. Despite women being favoured […]
Unpacking Gender – Let’s talk about space, body policing, and sexual violence
Women in Uganda remain disproportionately affected by various injustices and human rights violations with statistics showing that 7 out of every 10 women in Uganda have at some point in their lives been victims of sexual violence. This is asserted by the high rates of femicide and gender based violence against women as a result […]
Who Needs Feminism? Everybody
Feminists in Uganda get to go through their day in addition to fighting the various injustices that women face, trying to create world balance, responding to queries about feminism, if they really are man-haters and how they go to bed at night perfectly fine with pushing an evil agenda from the West. Most people have […]
Celebrating Diversities: Strengthening Inclusivity in GBV programming in Emergencies
It was a chilly morning as my cab driver Steven drove me to the airport. My folder containing workshop documents fell on the floor and caught Steven’s attention. While putting the documents back in the folder, he commented rather confidently, “Madam, why does your folder have BLTG? Is it not illegal to have things that […]
Accountability in the #MeToo Movement; Fighting Sexual Violence at the Workplace in Uganda
From street vendors and domestic workers to subsistence farmers, women make up a disproportionate percentage of workers in the informal sector. In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 74% of women in non-agricultural jobs are in informal employment. It is articulated that in Uganda, the informal sector is an important part of the economy at large. In 2014, […]
Blossoming Women’s Leadership for Decent Work in the Horticultural Sector in Uganda
The first thing that comes to mind when most people think about flowers is love, beauty, birthdays, weddings or similar celebrations. Nothing about the women who suffer insurmountable injustices to bring these flowers to our tables. Unquestionably, flowers make beautiful additions to our living spaces but what does it mean when the woman who picked […]
The Great, The Not So Great, And the Take Aways a.k.a The Story of EDD 2019
I started to write this while I waited for my flight back home, but then I got so emotional and I did not want to be the “African” girl crying at a European airport, so I closed my laptop and went to the Mac shop to try all the lipsticks, I knew I could not […]
Silencing our Fears and Fearing our Silence at the Uganda Feminist Forum 2019
Three days in a room overflowing with radical, powerful, fearless, vulnerable sisters intentional about growing their feminist journeys is unparalleled. With support from the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), The Open Society for Eastern Africa (OSIEA), Urgent Action Fund Africa and WomanKind Worldwide, the 8th convening of the Uganda Feminist Forum (UFF) was held from […]
The AWLI: Memories of an Invincible Sisterhood Created
Not only is she an advocate and policy advisor on trade, governance, and development issues in Africa, she is also passionate about changing Africa’s narrative and empowering young women to lead. Allen Sophia Asiimwe runs a regional consultancy firm- AVID Development Ltd (www.aviddevelopment.org); and is the co-founder of a global mentoring programme – Girls for […]
Statement: International Labour Day
Akina Mama wa Afrika joins millions of African women workers, the most active economic female agents world over, in celebrating their achievements and contribution to the development of their lives and the world. We strongly condemn the multiple forms of abuse and exploitation that women and girls are subjected to at their workplaces manifested as […]
Breaking the Silence around sexual and gender based violence among teenage mothers in Serere district, Uganda
The TuWezeshe Akina Dada Young Women’s Leadership and Empowerment Movement is a three year women and girls’ rights project funded by Comic Relief’s Common Ground Initiative. With the majority of women affected by some form of gender based violence, and with African women at risk of specific harmful practices and norms, TuWezeshe Dada aims to […]
Let’s talk sexual positivity, wellness and liberation, shall we?
A few days leading to March 30th, a quick scroll down Twitter streets revealed a buzz, a thrill that was taking the Twitterverse by storm. The second edition of Girl Talk Uganda was coming up and Feminists could not keep calm. Not only because of the theme this time round, on Sexual Positivity, Wellness and […]
Feminism and Men?
Is male engagement in the fight for the equality of women and men a yes or a no? Why? Akina Mama wa Afrika in her quarterly Knowledge Hubs, a space for her AMwAzons to come together and reflect on topical issues while enhancing their knowledge, convened her alumnae of the African Women’s Leadership Institute in […]
33rd Gender is My Agenda Campaign Pre-Summit Consultative Meeting
Women’s bodies are the first site of violence in situations of conflict and forced displacement. They become the currency of trade, to be exchanged for men to assuage fantasies of power and for access to basic goods needed in emergency situations. The atrocities of sexual violence including rape, sexual exploitation and slavery during conflict are […]